Garden
Eeang Lekhooana 1998 (Soweto)
I see twigs and weeds. All I see is dirt and death of the roots of my soul.
So I let it rain in the hope that all which does not belong washes away.
I see uncut grass, long enough to make me trip and fall on my face.
So I let it dry in the hope that it will be short.
I lay here crying myself to sleep in my dying garden.
I lay here, shying away from my garden, thinking I'll be pardoned by some holy cause.
I lay here contemplating all the flowers, which one deserves to be my light, but they all do.
Oh, how I've messed this garden up, thinking that the boy will come to trim it.
I saw him pass by, I waved, and I said hello, he smiled.
I asked him to please tend to my garden, but he wouldn't budge.
I asked the lady who happens to adore my roses and not my succulents to tend to my garden.
She also wouldn't budge. She asked if she could cut some of my roses to decorate her house. I didn't budge.
All my wildflowers, roses, succulents, daffodils and sunflowers seem to be growing.
Oh, how unorthodox my garden is.
And oh how beautiful they are in this mess.
So I tend to the garden. I let it rain.
I tended to garden because I don't need the boy or the lady.
I tend to the garden because I know the best way how.
The garden doesn't need to be trimmed. The garden doesn't need to be cut.
The garden is divine in all its forms.
The garden is holy uncut and untrimmed. The garden keeps on growing.
The garden knows that for it to thrive, it needs both the rain and the sun.
The garden is the garden is the garden.
About this poem
This poem is about self-love and self-acceptance. I use metaphor to liken myself to a garden and my traits to all the flowers that grow and flourish in a garden. As such, only the garden keeper knows how to tend to their garden, i.e what each flower/plant needs to flourish. It is not someone else who can come to look after it because they'll definitely ruin or trim it in an unlikely fashion. Therefore, I can be the only person who loves and accepts me for who I really am, and not someone else. Thus, by loving and accepting myself (tending to the garden) I can become the best version of myself and flourish. more »
Written on October 10, 2022
Submitted by eeang.lekhooana on October 10, 2022
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:44 min read
- 2 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XX XX AXX XXB AB CXXXXX X XCA A |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic octameter |
Characters | 1,523 |
Words | 339 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 2, 3, 3, 2, 6, 1, 3, 1 |
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"Garden" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/142822/garden>.
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